Liz Cheney Is Not a Hero
She just did her job
Editorial rights purchased from iStock. Photo/image by Feodora Chiosea.
Liz Cheney gave her much-anticipated concession speech after she was soundly beaten by her Trump-backed opponent in the Wyoming primary last night. No one was surprised.
Still, it may have been a bit of a letdown for those who have watched her masterful presentation skills during the January 6 Committee hearings. I understand the temptation to support her, given her direct contribution to the inevitable descent of Donald Trump.
It’s also important to remember that Cheney is just one of two Republicans in Congress who have been willing to face the truth about Trump publicly. That’s a big deal when you consider the threats, the violence, and the resistance to reality demonstrated by the rest of the Republican leadership in this country.
But let’s not be confused between heroic behavior and doing her job. Cheney is taking care of herself. She is smart enough to know that sacrificing her values for a fly-by-night, corrupt politician like Trump is not a winning strategy. Cheney plays the long game.
Cheney did her job while other Republicans failed to
I am sure it’s difficult to do the right thing when everyone around you threatens you. But let’s consider the context here. Anyone would look like a hero when the company they keep includes the likes of Donald Trump, Kevin McCarthy, Ron Johnson, Paul Gosar, and Matt Gaetz.
When faced with a choice between violating her oath of office and sacrificing her morality to support a man who is morally bankrupt and so stunningly ignorant that, after four years as president of the United States, he still has no idea what the job entails, she did the only logical thing — she saved herself.
Cheney knows Trump won’t be president in 2024. He probably won’t even be alive in 2024, but if he is, he’ll either be in jail or Russia.
So, for now, Cheney’s main job is to investigate the events of January 6 and to share the truth the committee discovers with the American people. Cheney is doing her job, and she’s doing it well, but that does not make her a hero.
It’s not hard to rise above a bar this low
The Republican Party is in shambles. Unfortunately, it took an insurrection and attempted coup for the public to finally see this. It’s easy to applaud a woman working to prevent the further degradation of her party, but being above the lowest level of depravity isn’t exactly worthy of high praise.
This is also not the first time in history that Republicans, the party of Liz Cheney, have sunken to new lows. If we take a trip down memory lane, we will be reminded of another time not so long ago when Republicans similarly committed violence under false pretenses.
Shortly after 9/11, the Bush Administration lied about WMD in Iraq. They used those lies to justify the illegal invasion of a sovereign nation, resulting in the death of over half a million Iraqis.
Among the proponents of this criminal strategy was Liz Cheney’s father, Dick Cheney — the same Dick Cheney present at his daughter’s concession speech last night, during which she reminded us how important family is to her. (I guess no one ever told her that family is equally important to brown-skinned people in other countries.)
No, Trump is not the only Republican who has used the American people to carry out a personal political agenda that violates everything America is supposed to stand for — though he is the only one she is willing to attack for it.
It’s easy to blame Donald Trump now. But Trump only succeeded in his bid for the presidency because influential Republicans were willing to support him. Before January 6, 2021, Liz Cheney was one of them.
Let’s stop comparing Cheney to her moronic counterparts and look at her record
Cheney voted for Donald Trump twice. She joined the rest of the Republicans in supporting a man credibly accused of molesting/harassing/assaulting almost two dozen women. She gladly participated in electing a man who bragged about grabbing women by the p**** to the office of president of the United States. And she supported Trump’s SCOTUS nominees, despite knowing their plans to overturn Roe v. Wade — thus sacrificing a woman’s right to bodily autonomy.
Cheney is not a proponent of women’s rights, despite being a woman.
Cheney also backed a president with clear white supremacist and misogynistic tendencies who is known to be a sociopath and pathological liar. So, Cheney is either a firm believer in the misguided idea that the ends justify the means, or she is a lousy judge of character. Either way, Cheney helped put Donald J. Trump in the White House.
In 93% of all legislation put before Congress during the Trump Administration, Cheney voted with Trump — that’s more than Matt Gaetz voted with Trump. So, we know she is okay with reducing taxes on the wealthy but not allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
Yes, she could be worse. She could be like almost every other Republican member of Congress. But just because she isn’t does not mean she is a hero.
Frankly, I’m glad she lost the primary race last night. There is probably a greater chance of a Democratic win in the general election in Wyoming now that Cheney is out of the picture.
And that’s a good thing because what we need now is more Democrats in the House of Representatives — not more Republicans.